Work engagement: Further reflections on the state of play

In this article we further reflect on the “state of play” of work engagement. We consider, clarify, and respond to issues and themes raised by eight preeminent work engagement researchers who were invited to respond to our position article. The key themes we reflect upon include: (1) theory and measurement of engagement; (2) state and task engagement; (3) climate for engagement versus collective engagement; (4) the dark side of engagement; (5) where job crafting may go wrong; and (6) moderators of the engagement–performance relationship. We conclude that engagement can sensibly be conceptualized as a positive and high arousal affective state characterized by energy and involvement; that there may be additional dimensions that might usefully be included; that we need to more fully understand the day-to-day and moment-to-moment temporal dynamics and implications of engagement; that a “climate for engagement” will influence individual and organizational outcomes; that although engagement is at heart a positive construct, the “dark side” of engagement needs to be acknowledged and understood; that “job crafting” provides a potentially powerful way for employees to manage their engagement; and that we need to gain a better understanding of the moderators that influence the way that engagement is related to performance. We also outline some practical implications that follow from our conclusions.     

When obvious covariations are not even learned implicitly

The present experiments examine the impact of covariation type and attention on implicit covariation learning. Experiments 1 and 2 compare learning of stimulus–stimulus (s–s) and stimulus–response (s–r) covariations. Although stimuli and responses were predicted by a distinct feature of the display, implicit learning neither of s–s nor of s–r covariations was observed. Experiments 3–5 explore the impact of attention on implicit learning of an s–r covariation. Distinct features either of the targets or of an incidental but centrally presented object predicted the responses. Implicit covariation learning was restricted to predictors that were part of to-be-attended targets. Finally, Experiment 6 shows implicit learning of a partial s–r covariation in which only one of two responses is predicted by target features. It is argued that implicit learning is based on the formation of associations between simultaneously activated distinct representations. Because only attended stimuli seem to reach a sufficient level of mental distinctiveness, attending the predictive information most likely is an indispensable prerequisite for implicit covariation learning to occur.     

Attention allocation to the right and left of a fixated word: Use of orthographic information from multiple words during reading

Eye movement contingent display changes were used to manipulate the information to the right of a fixated target in one experiment and to its right and left in a second experiment. Experiment 1 showed large increases in target viewing duration when orthographically illegal information was visible to the right of the target. Experiment 2 yielded smaller effects of orthographically illegal information in the parafovea on target viewing. Experiment 2 also showed that readers obtained useful information to the right of a fixated target irrespective of the type of information that was visible to the target's left. These results indicate that orthographic information is obtained from more than one word prior to saccade programming, and that the processing of orthographic information to the right and left of a fixated target is functionally independent.     

The Fluency Amplification Model: Fluent stimuli show more intense but not evidently more positive evaluations

Processing fluency plays a large role in forming judgments, as research repeatedly shows. According to the Hedonic Fluency Model, more fluently processed stimuli are rated more affectively positive than less fluently processed stimuli. Most research documenting such findings uses neutral or positive stimuli with low complexity, thus any potential impact of initial stimulus valence cannot be tested. In the present study, 60 IAPS stimuli ranging from very negative to very positive valence were rated on liking by participants. Processing fluency was manipulated through perceptual priming (7 ms). Results of Experiment 1 (N = 35) support the prediction of the Hedonic Fluency Model, but only for stimuli with an initially positive valence. However, when negative stimuli were processed more fluently, they were rated as more negative than when processed less fluently. Experiment 2 (N = 39) showed that enhancing the accessibility of the stimulus content (via prolonging the prime duration to 100 ms) cannot account for the results of Experiment 1, since Experiment 2 failed to replicate the findings obtained in Experiment 1. Potential factors influencing affective evaluation of negative stimuli are discussed. A model is offered for the reinterpretation of processing fluency as an amplifying factor for evaluative judgment.     

Perceptual averaging by eye and ear: Computing summary statistics from multimodal stimuli

Beyond perceiving the features of individual objects, we also have the intriguing ability to efficiently perceive average values of collections of objects across various dimensions. Over what features can perceptual averaging occur? Work to date has been limited to visual properties, but perceptual experience is intrinsically multimodal. In an initial exploration of how this process operates in multimodal environments, we explored statistical summarizing in audition (averaging pitch from a sequence of tones) and vision (averaging size from a sequence of discs), and their interaction. We observed two primary results. First, not only was auditory averaging robust, but if anything, it was more accurate than visual averaging in the present study. Second, when uncorrelated visual and auditory information were simultaneously present, observers showed little cost for averaging in either modality when they did not know until the end of each trial which average they had to report. These results illustrate that perceptual averaging can span different sensory modalities, and they also illustrate how vision and audition can both cooperate and compete for resources.     

Covert attention and eye movements during reading

Eye movements were monitored during the reading of spatially transformed text in order to examine covert attentional processes in reading. In some conditions, the sequence of letters within a word was congruent with (i.e. in the same direction as) the sequence of words in the sentence; in other conditions the direction of letters within words and the direction of words in the sentence were incongruent. In addition, the window of visible text was varied so that in some conditions only the fixated word (and all preceding words) were visible, whereas in other conditions the fixated word and the succeeding word were both visible. Readers were able to extract more parafoveal information from text when the words themselves were normal than when the letters within the words were transformed. However, with practice, readers were able to use some parafoveal information even when the words were transformed. The most important finding was that the congruity of the word and letter order had no reliable effect on the ability to extract parafoveal information and influenced reading performance only when the words themselves were normal. We conclude that covert attention in reading is not a letter-by-letter scan that sweeps across the page, but either an asymmetric spotlight held constant on each fixation or a shifting of an attentional spotlight extending across multiletter units (possibly words) with the direction of shifts of attention closely coupled to the direction of eye movements.